Closing Reflections on Japan!

Yowza! It has been amazing to see two major cities of Japan for the past ten days! Despite the articles on Japan my cousin kindly handed me before coming, there were still endless elements of Japan that came as a surprise. Here are a few for your perusal.

1. Toilet extremes. The majority of toilets in Japan are squat toilets, where you crouch awkwardly over a porcelained hole in the ground. I’m not a fan. On the far other end of the spectrum, however, are insane tricked-out toilets, which have an armrest with buttons for: butt spray, butt shower, puff of “extreme” deodorizer, flush SOUND with no actual flush (perhaps to mask embarrassing sounds?), tiny flush (for number one), big flush (for number two), seat warmer (!), and rocket launcher (just joking) 😀

Gordon attests that these toilet extremes symbolize how Japan is still straddling both modern, urban culture, and rural, old-fashioned ways.

2. Extreme service and politeness. I was stunned and touched by the eager, attentive, kind service at every restaurant and store we frequented. Everyone seemed to genuinely take pride in their jobs, throwing their soul into service and doing everything possible to assist the customers. People on the street who I asked for directions were also wonderful, doing their absolute best with my Japanese language incompetence.

3. Weird kinky stuff. Yesterday we accidentally passed through a district chock full of cartoon kiddie porn, catalogs of pictures of women to “buy” to meet you at a nearby “love hotel”, and the “love hotels” themselves, which are pay-by-the hour rooms with themes such as “Christmas” (!!!!! see photo for proof!!!!!) that you can apparently reserve by pressing a vending machine button in the lobby, so you don’t have to embarrassingly talk to a human as you lead your “escort” upstairs. Creepy! Christmas?!!

A Christmas-Themed Love Hotel!

4. The desperate feeling of being unable to read.

I have taken my English alphabet for granted! Dear, sweet, intelligible writing… at times in Japan you were nowhere to be found, and I was a lost, helpless puppy!

This is always such an important reminder for us teachers out there: it feels real weird to not understand!

In such situations one needs love and care… and help!

5. The language + the politeness = 5 different ways to say “Thank You” depending on the amount of formality and respect.

This is just like WHOA! Doesn’t register with my little American brain. System overload.

6. Prices.

I had been warned that Japan is insanely expensive. Happily, thanks to the kindness of my hosts, I was able to rock it out for about $50 a day… which is very happy given that I may have just received my last BPS paycheck for the year!!!!

Oy!!!! Gotta make that cash last!

7. As Gordon gushed, “The trains are SICK on time!!”

When you go anywhere by public transportation with a Tokyo-ite or Osakan, they will suddenly whip out their cell phones, become absorbed for several minutes, then pull you confidently down ten million tunnels of subways and cars.

Turns out the trains are so INSANELY on time that everyone uses an online program to figure out EXACTLY which train and connection you should hop upon. As I was leaving for the airport train, Gordon hollered: “The airport train will come at 8:06, 8:16, 8:30, and 8:42! Remember that the 8:16 train is a local, and so will be a smaller train.”

Okay then… “sick on time” is right.

8. There were hardly any homeless folk on the streets.

When there were one or two, they were politely sitting by a wall, reading the newspaper… never begging. Moreover, why did Jimmy have to rush off on Saturday after hanging out with us? He was off to play in the Homeless World Cup, and train the Japanese Homeless Soccer Team to play in MILAN, ITALY!!!

Could I ever live in Japan? Heck no. I’ve got too much loud inappropriateness, passion for diversity, and poor Asian language skills to cope. Have I had the most delightful first international stop possible, thanks to the kindness of my hosts? Heck ya! Thanks to Yuki, Mike, Dee, Gordon, Jimmy, and all the others who were so kind and lovely!

The author, Lillie Marshall, is a National Board Certified Teacher of English who has written over 700 articles on Around the World "L" Travel Blog since 2009, becoming a respected source of advice on educational travel.. and creating joy in everyday life! Lillie launched Teaching Traveling in 2010, which is now one of the internet's most extensive communities of global education expertise. Lillie is mother to two young children, and has been a Boston educator since 2003.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Wow. I’m a little amazed by this to be honest, but what I liked the most was that there’s hardly homeless people. Where I come from there’s a lot of people living on the streets. One time my family and I went out and on our way home I saw a family of four sitting there trying to cover themselves with the only blanket they had and they had a tiny bed that only two could fit in. They had no food, no shoes, no nothing. The worst part was that there was cold weather and they were trying to cover themselves with the tiny blanket. I am a little sad that things in Japan are expensive because in other places, some people can’t afford that much money. But overall, Japan seems like a really nice and entertaining place to visit. -Arlene

Man after reading this article I was really surprised to see that toilets have these unusual button commands to trains that always arrive on time. But the one that surprised me the most is that you barely saw any homeless people. I thought that you would see some or a lot of homeless people in Japan because of its very dense population. Overall I think this article is great and I look forward to reading all of them!

When I was in Japan, I was amazed how everything simply looked, felt and functioned perfectly. 110 % perfection!
It’s a totally other World there. Perfectionism is everything.
Loved the extreme politeness 🙂
But those hypermodern toilets… sci-fi.

Why is there a Christmas themed love hotel hotel in Japan? There are non of these in Boston, but that was probably a really cool site to see. Just a giant statue of Santa Claus sitting on a hotel in the middle of Japan sounds like it would be hilarious.

Actually, most of the toilets I saw in Japan were actually western-style. However, I did run into squat toilets on occasion – mostly in older dormitories. And about the prices… my biggest piece of reverse culture shock I felt upon returning to Japan from vacations in South Korea and Thailand was seeing the prices at Narita Airport.

Why haven’t I read this article earlier?! I think Japan is so cool! I stopped over there on my way to the Philippines. The toilets were so epic. Cartoon kiddie porn. That’s different. Was it like anime? I wish the MBTA was always “sick on time.” This is one of the best articles on this site 😀

LOL. I would like to go to toilets in Japan when I first get there. It’s sad that now the beautiful Japan was ruined by the earthquake and tsunami. 🙁 I was planning to go there next April vacation, but now I don’t think I can go anymore.

Reading your article makes me want to go to Japan! Although, I could do without the strange toilets and I’m going to have to learn Japanese first. 🙂 Haha…it must have been really weird for you not understanding anything! I can see how you would be so lost!

Haha, the part about the awesome toilets made me laugh. Japan seems like a sweet place, i’d love to chill there sometime. I wonder what’d it be like to actually have a bus or train arrive on time.. that’d be sweet. Speaking of Japan, i’d KILL for some sushi right now

Japan seems like a really cool and unique place to go to. I would love to go but I would have the problem of not knowing their language or knowing how to get around! Boston and Japan seem like completely different worlds!

Luddy Sr. said…
Great. Now I want to go to Japan too. (And not just for the weird kinky santa land stuff).

December 5, 2009 1:33 AM

Anonymous said…
BTW – flush sound is used to mask the tinkling sound. i had a freak out in a mall when i was in high school, because i couldn’t find the actual flusher, only the oto-hime (sound princess) button, and after pressing it repeatedly and only getting a flushing sound, i had to ask some other person in the bathroom how to use the toilet.
incedentally, i don’t think they have that button in men’s rooms. -MS

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[…] If you want to read more about visiting Japan, I recommend this article from Walking On Travels. For several articles on travel in contemporary Japan, see Around the World “L”. You can find Lillie’s Japan articles here. Her reflections on her own culture shock are in her Closing Thoughts on Japan article. […]

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